Show washington digest see less favorable reaction to remarks than formerly once I 1 labeled superman Su it Is now realized president Is human and can make mistakes his will no longer completely dominant by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D C washington there has been much conversation around here late ly conc concerning eming the changed reception given president roosevelt s acts or statements it can not be doubted that there has been an absence of that buoyancy which characterized his shots of earlier days in the white house but lately if one may judge from the observations of many per sons he has been missing the tar get as often as he has been hitting the result obviously is that a good many persons have noted less favor able reaction to mr roosevelt s re marks than formerly was the case it is hardly necessary to recall how through some five or six years the president presidents s remarks made his opposition wriggle and squirm his statements seemed to have that nee essary punch which quelled out bursts from those who disagreed with him the press corps of wash ington or a large percentage of its membership always hankered for a fresh volley it was good copy in a news nelas way having noted the changed condi condl tion myself I 1 sought a canvass of others nearly all of them evenou ally came to the conclusion that the lack of fire now often displayed in mr roosevelt Roosevel ts s remarks and their failure to arouse the same fervor among his followers are a natural result of events he has been found by many people to be just human like his predecessor in the white house mr hoover president roosevelt was overbuilt or oversold by his ardent admirers he was la belled as superman and that is one of the worst things that can happen to a politician it is the worst thing that can happen to a president be cause no man can be president un less he is a politician in saying that the roosevelt cir cle ballyhooed their man too much I 1 hope I 1 am not detracting from the good qualities the point of this story is after all that millions of persons were led to believe that president roosevelt could not make mistakes mistakes were out his ken but the job of president of the united states has a way of disclose ing the true fiber build up gave roosevelt false idea of his powers I 1 believe it a fair statement that the success which met mr roose velt s every turn during the period of his tenure until perhaps 18 months ago was due to this illusion that had been created to repeat his publicity backers seized on a col erful figure and built up that man to the point where more was expect ed of him than should be expected from any human being it is entirely possible that mr roosevelt suffered personally from the intense fervor of the admiration that was given him I 1 do not say of course that he felt that he was a superman yet the combination of a willing congress and the over whelming support he had from the country possibly gave him a false idea of the power vested in him in any event he used that power up to the hilt then came signs of trouble his advisors and possibly the president as well felt that congress could be made to do his bidding republican opposition and the chiding of mem bers of congress that they were rub ber stamps began to have an ef feet A test was coming and most politicians realized it through the session of congress last year and that which only recently ended mr roosevelt followed the same tactics as before but the change had come and the course was blocked it was no longer a period m which the will of the president was wholly and completely dominant all ali of which brings to mind the real facts in the case insofar as the causes of the president s current in effectiveness are concerned it is the old story any ball team looks good when it is in the lead when it is winning any race horse is a wonder only so long as it continues to win it can be said therefore that having slipped considerably both in political prestige inside his own party and outside of it and having allowed some of the wide public endorsement to get away from him mr roosevelt is now being re carded as a human being who can make mistakes any mistakes that he may have made while he re mamed the winner were discounted or ignored it seems likely horev er that all of them will be dug from their graves now and he must an awer for them makes bad break in digging up supreme court skeleton nor is mr roosevelt willing to let some of them die unnoticed for instance everyone recalls the heat that was engendered by the dent s attempt to get congressional approval of his own pet government reorganization bill his terrific fight for a reorganization of the supreme court with the new appointments that would come to him is easily recalled but the president dug u up P the court skeleton the other day 1 it t struck me as terribly foolish be cause the country had forgotten much about that mistake mr roosevelt recalled it in all of ita it 3 fury however by issuing a state ment almost without notice saying that he had bad obtained his court fight objectives with enactment finally ol 01 a minor bill that sets up a court ad in the same statement mr roose velt made a bad break he an bounced that besides the passage of the administrator bill the last session of congress had created five additional judgeships in district court which he wanted well it happened that the senate passed the judgeship bill but the house never did and mr roosevelt was ancor erectly informed the result was tha the same it made the president look looh rather sour for the moment along with mr roosevelt s state ment about argentine canned beel beef being of a better quality than out own beef I 1 think we ought to rank the president presidents s statement about the refusal of congress to pass ahe he spending lending bill and the hous mg ing bill it struck me as being very bad politics for the president to climb way out on a limb and say that the congress gambled with the welfare of 1 1500 people when it failed to enact the adminis s neutrality bill it gambled with the welfare of 20 when it refused to pass the lending bill and the housing bill he implied ol 01 course that refusal of congress to accept the president presidents s judgment on the neutrality measure would cast the world into war and that the action on the lending and housing bills would mean there could be no economic recovery president sincere about spending and housing bills so evidently the two or three de feats that were clustered together made the president appear differ antly than when he had been on the winning side there were even some of the president presidents s enemies charging him with qualities of a poor loser I 1 do not believe that is the case there is evidence that the president sin berely believed his lending meas ure and the housing program would do the job of restoring a prosperous condition to the country he has played the game of politics too long not to know how to lose on the other hand there have been many harsh statements con cerling the president presidents s accusations that congress was gambling from among democrats who voted against him on the major bills I 1 heard declarations of belief that their judgment was as good as that possessed by the chief executive those democrats saw no reason to concede a monopoly of brain power to mr roosevelt when he fired at them he obviously invited bach back talk of the worst order he has received it too take another incident only a week ago the president sent a let ter to the young democrats of america meeting in pittsburgh to the effect that unless the democrat ic je party nominates his kind of a hb lib eral he will take no active part in electing that nominee in other words he said actually that he would bolt the party immediately he got a reaction to that statement that just did him no good at all now it is one thing to lead the party which is united it is quite another horse to be led when the part is split and the democratic party is split the declaration to the young democrats therefore was received by a good many democrats as an open invitation for warfare attempted purge of senators complete and decided flop one has to consider the statement to the young democrats in the light of some earlier mistakes every one recalls how the president at tempted to purge the democratic party of senators george of geor gia smith of south carolina and tydings of maryland last year that purge attempt flopped in a way that beggars description each of those three were re elected reelected to the senate and when they won their fight they asserted their own judg ment in preference to mr roose velt s there is also the surge that has come building up cactus jack garner for the democratic nomma nomina tion next year now vice dent garner is a conservative he has had nearly 40 years of public service obviously he has a follow ing and it appears to be getting big ger mr roosevelt s declaration that he may bolt the party if some one not his kind of a liberal is nom mated is a statement almost certain to strengthen the garner forces released by western newspaper union |